Category Archives: POETRY

TEN DAYS LEFT

Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com

Ten days left before we turn right?

Ten days until bleakness blinds our sight.

Have we gone so far there is little left

of democratic values clutched to our chests?

Ten days left to fight the fascist storms

unleashed across every institution,

destroying all norms.

Ten days left to remain free,

a freedom based on hypocrisy

and built on lives shipped 

across international waters,

slaves to barter and build an economy

upon flayed backs, our own souls slaughtered.

Entertainment is our strongest ally

allowing full inattention to hide

the deadening ignorance that blankets our pride.

The conscience our forefathers followed

has no place in a nation who souls are hollowed

by power and greed’s need to be seen,

even if only on social media screens.

Muscles clenched in taut abdomens

where fear tends to hide

we try our best to hold onto our pride.

Ten days left to turn the fascist tide.

We are not perfect.

It is perfectly true.

But we always keep going forward.

We always try to improve.

Ten days are both too many and too few

to hold a nation together,

for free people to weather

the threat of old evils made new.

Ten days left.

I am counting on you.

Vote!

1 Comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

NIGHTMARES

Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels.com

I dream of Nazis…

men in blue jeans and camouflage

jackets with pockets

to hold weapons,

wearing red MAGA hats;

and bleached-hair women

in comfortable clothes

and comfortable shoes,

smiling at cameras

while they praise

a nobody who makes them feel

like somebody.

Like tools they line up

on his bleachers to be used

to disparage and demean

the others they call fiends.

These are not dreams.

These are nightmares come alive 

and rending the seams of a nation’s fabric

with fascist schemes.

I can no longer sleep

in the silence 

of so many who stay quiet.

Too ashamed to shout with that lout.

But willing to vote him in

to the place where our destruction begins.

I dream of Nazis,

the shouters

the doubters

the scoffers

the weak

the divided

the insiders

who refuse to give up

position and power,

while hour after hour

the fascist beast devours

airwaves and pews.

Let there not be too few

to block his way

on election day.

VOTE!

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

AGELESS LOVE

Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva on Pexels.com

Writing romance can only be done in the dark of night

while stars yet dance holding tight

to Orion’s belt, keeping apace in love’s delight,

swaying to the tune of memories so bright,

they light up the darkest and deepest insights,

recalling softly-murmured prose 

that touched the heart and curled the toes,

lifted up bodies locked in embrace,

and kissed in rhythm keeping the pace.

Nights seem long to young lovers

but may I remind, 

romance too easily fades over time.

The night too soon ends in the glare of the sun.

Oh, what lovers would give to stay young.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY

A FAMILY HAIKU

Photo by Timur Weber on Pexels.com

Families are strange.

At once a warm, firm embrace;

and, cold, hard shackles.

Families are more

than blood, bone and genetics.

They are countries, too.

Families argue.

Families may often fight;

then set things to right.

VOTE!

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

AVOIDANCE

Photo by Liza Summer on Pexels.com

All I want

is to avoid 

my own thoughts

lately clothed in fear

so pronounced 

they bring me to tears.

It finally must be said

anger fades to grief

when death brazenly nears.

Watching a beloved die,

clutching the hand,

wiping the brow,

for perhaps the last time

applies to nations.

I watch my beloved country

whose solemn vow

has always been protect and defend

all those living within

the boundaries of an idea in place

to open freedom’s gates

to all equally, within its small space.

I hold my nation’s heart and soul

with trembling hands 

and shortened breath.

In painful realization

that so many countrymen

in this amazing nation

fear not, nor mourn with me

the loss of our democracy.

Friends and family alike

smirk and snarl in true delight

the unleashed dogs of fear and fright

which rip apart all we have built

without a trace of grief nor guilt.

They break my heart

as they tear our world apart.

1 Comment

Filed under POETRY

GRIFTERS UNITE

A nation of grifters.

That now seems right.

And the right has taken

grifting to a new level,

right in our sight.

Trump bibles, watches and hats

to grift cash for legal defense.

Elon Musk funds the cache

with his own which once

was our own, using what our

tax dollars created as his own.

Grifters come in all moneyed sizes.

But, the fine print on their offers

is too small to easily read,

hiding their grifting and greed.

Starlink for free to victims

of hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Except it is not free.

And if Musk and Trump succeed.

None of us will be free.

After one month, we will owe

Musk three-hundred forty-nine plus

dollars and service fees. 

Backlash forced him to extend

the grift until the end 

of the year 2024.

when victims will be left

holding the bag and more.

And so grifters appear to be

enlightened and generous and we

their sycophantic beneficiaries,

until it is too late

to shut the fascist gate

being constructed right under our nose.

Grifting away democracy is not new.

It has happened to others before, 

but now, for us, it is way too close.

The grifters have united 

and now so must we.

Vote!

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

REMAINING ON STAGE

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Crickets on the hearth,

Spiders in the bed,

push early-morning risers

to live out their dread

of hurricanes and floods

and myriad disasters;

reminding us we are mere humans

and the joke of the universe’s laughter.

Perhaps, that is why some few stay

and refuse to be subdued,

pretending they control the stage

lifting a finger in Mother Nature’s face.

And we imagine they are me and you.

As the curtain comes down

the audience leaves, 

except for the very few.

And laughter dies, as seas and rivers

overcome their bounds and flow anew.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, Uncategorized

J.D.VANCE

May I lie to you?

I promise to do it sweetly

and completely.

You will not feel a thing,

not really, never really.

Soft-spoken hateful lies

only raise hair across the nape.

Polite lies do not become the farce

of a carnival barker red in the face

who raises bile and never smiles

except in that smug way.

My smug smile lies in wait

only to be seen behind the screen

of my politeness and grace.

The need to shower away filth

subsides as one leans forward

to catch the whispered slide

of my quiet lies across the skin.

Lying to win is not a sin.

I lie so well.

No one can tell.

and so, I softly and secretly smile

with serious gaze all the while.

It is ridiculous

how insidious

polite lies swell.

Can you tell?

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

CONNECTED

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are so huge they force us to mourn.

Some losses sift sinew and bone,

ideals and beliefs, tattered and worn.

Some losses pull hearts apart

smiling tears of grief, we feel all alone.

We pretend such loss is not our own

when watched on screens, viewed from afar.

But, connection is more than geography.

Some losses cross borders we cannot see.

Drought, floods and storms floor us all equally.

Bombs rain down on other cities 

and beat us all bloody, in hidden anatomy.

Threads bind us together in an ethernet.

One stitch connecting us here and there, 

of which we are determinedly unaware.

Instead we pretend, through word and prayer,

when what we really must do is give a care.

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are too great to ignore.

For, when we do, they lead to war.

Like children we make up games

and pretend life is merely a game to play.

Business and politics play out games’ themes.

Media reports but no one referees.

The games of politics and war become a melee.

But, life is much more than a game to play.

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are too great to ignore.

Our votes are not tokens to be tossed in a loss.

Our votes are connections which must not be lost.

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are too great to ignore.

Please, stop playing long enough

to go vote on behalf of ALL of us.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

DOES LIFE COMPUTE?

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Pexels.com

If only life were like a computer program.

I could simply delete the lies and deceit.

I could simply retrieve what I believe.

I could simply edit out every lout

and paste heroes to replace their disgrace.

I could share and button-down my despair.

I could control, alt, delete rancor and heat.

I could scroll down and out all who troll.

I could shift and place higher with a lift

all those deserving of such a gift.

I could highlight in bold those deserving the gold.

I could edit and replace every con-man and scrape-grace.

I could, if I would, but maybe should

not waste the time to forward and rewind

podcasts littering my mind.

But, I am human and neither prophet nor divine.

I am not even A I; just a person line by line

writing to face another day with distaste

for climate and wars showing such force

that destruction follows men’s course

and hope flows down mountains and wipes out

any doubt that my redoubt will succeed.

Too many lies run down from dark skies.

Too many clouds hide arms opened wide

to future peace and prosperity faced with asperity

while storm-trooper rise to bait and debate democracy’s demise.

Their faces bathed in hate’s light meant to cause fright

across every screen invade my dreams.

I cannot hit delete while I sleep fearing defeat.

If only life were like a computer those disputers

who lie line after line, could be sent to my trash.

If only, we could do that without a backlash.

We prepare protection against another insurrection.

We update our program to withstand hack attack.

Maybe life waits in accord for my touch on its board.

Maybe life does compute and refute every dispute.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS